We spend a lot of time mapping out the API landscape here at Streamdata.io. We are always on the hunt for new and interesting data sources, as well as ideas for how to deliver meaningful events from web APIs. Many of the potential customers we are talking to are hungry for consulting assistance around doing APIs. They are interested in streaming data using Streamdata.io proxies, but often times aren’t sure how they can find the public API source they need, or be able to get access to simple JSON APIs from internal sources of data. They need help understanding what is even possible, before they are ready for our streaming service–this is where Streamdata.io consulting services come into play.
We spend time mapping out the world of publicly available APIs, by profiling them using OpenAPI, then indexing using APIs.json, and then including them in the latest version of our API gallery. Essentially mapping out the API landscape across a mix of business sectors, organizing them into over 200 separate tags. We use this API map to help us understand what types of API resources are available, and which API providers we want to be engaging with. We have a limited amount of resources, so we need to be efficient with our time, and focusing on the best API providers, with the most relevant API resources.
In addition to doing this across the public API landscape, we also help companies, organizations, institutions, and government agencies map out the API landscape internally. Understand where the existing services, APIs, and data sources are. Sometimes we are just mapping out what the API landscape should look like, based upon existing events that occur and messages being pushed around. Looking to understand where common, easily transformed sources of data and content might be–resources like:
– Web Services – Older SOAP and RPC services.
– FTP Locations – Common files located in FTP locations.
– Spreadsheets – Identify the common spreadsheets in use.
– Web APIs – Document existing web API resources.
– RSS / Atom Feeds – Aggregate common feed types.
– Datasources – Connect and translate existing data sources.
– Email – Using email as a common message exchange.
These are some of the most common ways we will help companies identify and map out existing sources of information, which can be then exposed as APIs, or taken as is and proxied using Streamdata.io. These are the internal sources of information many folks take for granted in existing applications, but when they want to make accessible in 3rd party, and other external systems, they quickly begin looking for API-driven solutions.
Streamdata.io can’t directly stream anything less then an existing JSON API, but all of the sources of data can easily be converted into a JSON API without much investment, depending on the security and access considerations. We find that the biggest challenges actually come in helping people understand what resources are already available, make sense of the differences between different sources, and pros and cons of each type of data source. While we’d love for everyone to be able to use Streamdata.io right out of the gate, we understanding they need help understand what the data and content landscape looks like within, and across their organizations.
If you need help mapping out the API landscape at your company, organization, institution, or government agency, we are happy to help. Streamdata.io is more than just a streaming API company, we are also an API lifecycle consulting company. We are more than happy to help you streamline your existing infrastructure, processes, and help develop your understanding of the landscape that exists around you–you just have to let us know!
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